U.S. Pat. No. 6,009,604 describes a brassiere front closure which is easily manipulated by inserting a bar of a male member into a trough of a female member when the members are oriented orthogonally, and rotating the members to a coplanar position to lock the closure. U.S. Pat. No. 9,833,046 describes an improved closure including features which permit easier alignment of the members for simplified manipulation. These structural features further enable an extremely thin closure for improved comfort and visual appearance. In addition, a single female closure member accepts various sizes of male closure member, enabling a garment system with readily detachable and interchangeable components.
For a fastener to be suitable for use with interchangeable straps, the fastener must have a high tensile stress rating. While the fastener of U.S. Pat. No. 9,833,046 provides a tensile strength of 20-30 pounds, it is advantageous to increase the tensile strength as it will decrease the likelihood of the fastener becoming inadvertently undone, causing inconvenience and embarrassment to the wearer.
It is an object of the closure provided herein to incorporate features which resist decoupling under tension while maintaining a thin profile, thus providing a closure suitable for use with interchangeable garment components or as a discrete front closure for a brassiere, bikini, or top.